Charles Krauthammer Gets Personal as He Reflects on Charlie Gard Debate
Conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer got personal while discussing Charlie Gard, a 10-month-old child in London who suffers from a rare condition called mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome and is fighting for his life.
Appearing on Special Report Wednesday, Krauthammer said what he personally do and what should be done in this instance are two different things.
“If I were the judge, come in, has to make a ruling, I would allow the child to die,” Krauthammer said. “He can’t see, he can’t hear, he can’t speak, he can’t swallow, and he has no control, he can’t move, and he has terrible epilepsy.”
Krauthammer, who has been paralyzed ever since a diving accident he suffered in 1972, recalled what it was like to be dependent a breathing tube.
“I’ve had a breathing tube in me for weeks on end as he does, and it is a life of agony and great distress,” Krauthammer said. “I can protest, I was an adult. He can’t.”
Yet Krauthammer stated that decisions about Charlie Gard’s life should be left up to his parents.
But I’m not the objective judge. And I think there’s one principle that overrides all of this. And that is, in the end, it should be the parents who decide. You’ve got to have a highest authority here. It seems to me the highest authority always has to be the parents. I don’t believe for a minute that there is a treatment that is going to make a difference. But if the parents want to try, let them.
President Donald Trump and Pope Francis are among those who have Tweeted their support for Charlie Gard.
If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2017
To defend human life, above all when it is wounded by illness, is a duty of love that God entrusts to all.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) June 30, 2017
Watch above, via Fox News.
[featured image via screengrab]
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